Predicting Formaldehyde Concentrations in Manufactured Housing Resulting from Medium-Density Fiberboard

摘要

HUD previously issued Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards limiting formaldehyde emissions of particleboard and plywood paneling that were manufactured using urea-formaldehyde resins for use in manufactured homes. The report uses indoor air quality models to predict how much medium-density fiberboard(mdf) may be added to manufactured homes already containing maximum loadings of particleboard and plywood paneling, without raising the formaldehyde concentration beyond 400 ppb. It was found that any combination of mdf that results in a chamber-test concentration of 300 ppb may be added to such a home. A sensitivity analysis was done to predict how this formaldehyde concentration limit is affected by variations in temperature, relative humidity, and air exchange rate. It was concluded that limiting chamber concentrations to 200 ppb would allow for small errors in temperature, relative humidity, and air exchange rate that might be expected to arise in practice.